To be quick, I don't know of any. But there is always our friend copy/paste.

Quick update saying new page came up, like "Page 130 is now on" or "Poe is filling lazy and so here is another filler" or "Now we have an interesting description" or the comment that is posted on each new page. In any way, it doesn't have to be big or hard to do (copy/paste).

Well that's fine, I've now send to all my friends your an invitation to see your web comic.

If you have an account, send invitation to your friends too. In any case it will just give some more reader and possibly more selling/donation.

Then you can build up a community much larger than it is right now. But community have there needs and have to be given right direction so they are happy.

In my case I'm happy with the comic and the site and the forum. I'm sorry that I couldn't play in the Errand Road, witch is great for a community.

Trying to get your people, has they are now member of the great community of ES, more immersed in the universe is a something that I've not seen in other web comic and is own by only you. Even when reading filler containing some explanation on the universe is entertaining.

I know there is many regular on this site and they are all wonderful fans, like I'm. I'm sure they can all go on your face book and recommend it to all there friends.

*Edit*

Hum, it might see weird but I've stumble on the wiki thing facebook by searching errant story. But the link isn't the same as the one on the board about the facebook page.

Still! Need more update ^^ (update is like feeding your community so they don't starve)

And so I've add that facebook too and send it to all my friends (again).

(I kind of feel stupid for the mistake)

Last edited by Swift on November 27th, 2010, 11:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Swift wrote:I'm sorry that I couldn't play in the Errand Road, witch is great for a community.

For you, and for anyone else who's interested, it is very definitely NOT too late to join Errant Road! New players and characters come in all the time, and the current players are generally very happy to work with you to help integrate someone new. Also, a new Errant Road thread is likely to start very soon on the mythical "Southern Continent" (which doesn't exist in Errant Story itself) that will be particularly easy for new players to join. If you're interested, drop me a private message and I'll help you get started. We'd love to have more participation!

Yeah, technically I'm supposed to be helming the facebook integration, but I also suck and am lazy. I'm looking into Wordpress plugins that will automagically dump a status update into FB every time we update. I'll test them out over on Apple of Discord first, and if I find one that isn't horrible I'll suggest Kaitou work it into ES.

Yes Greybear, I agree, I should play Errant Road with all of you. I've read some of the adventures and it's worth a good fan fiction. I've had a character prepared, but didn't played him since I hadn't time. Why I'm sorry is that I had time since some month but forgot about it. I might add that I've got no excuse for not playing not and so I'll pm you about this subject.

Viking-Sensei, I thank you for the attention given to how do we get the word out. I don't know how that integration work but hope that it bare it's fruit.

I have done a bit of internet advertising for clients and my own business. Most clients (and my business, since it was a startup) had very limited internet advert budgets (probably too small for what they wanted done in most cases, had to get results before they would dedicate the kind of money they needed to.)

Facebook advertising is basically where its at for a very low initial cost and very high ROI. You can target specific demos (ages, education levels, location, etc.) and set a very limited budget (I think my first FB ad campaign had a budget of $10/day, woohoo.) Design the ad, put it up and get it out there to people of the age you want to target. If you do it in limited areas (ie certain metro areas to begin with) then you can get the cost down pretty low - $0.10-$0.25/click is probably what I would expect unless the demo you target is popular with a lot of other advertisers.

I highly suggest you start getting professional about things if you possibly can; if you don't know the age, location and education level of the people who are already buying from you, you're starting literally throwing punches in the dark. If you have data on who purchases from you then you can start targeting that demo and go from there.

The other thing you need to figure is your conversion rate; ie, how much money is your average reader per month? Ex.: ES has 1000 people accessing it every month, poe get $1000 put in his bank account every month, that means you can say each new reader is worth $1/mo on average and start making calculations on how much you can spend getting a new reader from there.

I'd be happy to talk to either you or Poe at length on this subject; its one of intense interest to me and that I've been studying and working on apart from whatever other functions I've had within other peoples' and my own company.

Edit: Unless this is just playtime for you and Poe and you have other sources of income that negate the need/want for more money from ES/other projects, you have to remember that the end goal is not more readers but more $ floating into your bank account every month. Too many companies I've worked with have lost the sight of their ultimate purpose; it can be seen in long, convoluted, stupid "mission statements." The mission statement of every company should go something like this: the mission of this company is to make as much money as possible for its owners and shareholders. The. End. Expanding readership is just a means to that end; it isn't the end (or shouldn't be.)

Keep your eye on the prize and it will make decisions a lot easier when you have a lot of options laid out on the table and can only go with a few.

Pancho Villa wrote:I highly suggest you start getting professional about things if you possibly can; if you don't know the age, location and education level of the people who are already buying from you, you're starting literally throwing punches in the dark. If you have data on who purchases from you then you can start targeting that demo and go from there.

The other thing you need to figure is your conversion rate; ie, how much money is your average reader per month? Ex.: ES has 1000 people accessing it every month, poe get $1000 put in his bank account every month, that means you can say each new reader is worth $1/mo on average and start making calculations on how much you can spend getting a new reader from there.

Not to nitpick, but not all readers are the same. In addition to finding the demographic that enjoys this comic, if you can find the demographics that specifically donate, that would be better. If ES has 5,000 visitors and receives $1,000, is that because he has 5,000 donors at 20 cents apiece? 1,000 $1 donors? or 10 $100 donors? How many of your donors are recurring vs. single payments (i.e. when you post funding crises?).

You might want to send emails out to your larger donors and ask them what they like about the comic and what makes them want to donate. Since I know you're not exactly brimming with free time, you might want to make a standard format with specific questions to limit their ramblings, and reduce the amount you have to read.